Self-service terminals include kiosks. Kiosks provide a publicly accessible computing platform. Kiosks may be located within a retailer's transaction establishment or elsewhere, such as at airport terminals. Kiosks may be easily networked to World Wide Web (web) sites for displaying web pages and other web-delivered content from web sites. Web pages from web sites may be displayed using known and available web software, such as Microsoft® Internet Explorer software.
Automated devices such as the dispensing or vending machines disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,979,017, 4,120,452, and 4,630,042 permit an article to be selected from a variety of articles and dispensed to an individual user or consumer. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/686,862, discloses a system and method of dispensing disc-based media and other consumer products. A user can interact with an automated business system to select disc-based media for rental and/or purchase. The automated business system can retrieve the selection from the interior of the automated business system and dispense the selection through a port to the user. The automated business system can retrieve the selection from the port in a return process.
Some aspects of automated systems have been incorporated into fields wherein a hotel or vehicle key is provided to a consumer. Thus, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,752,876, 4,661,806, and 4,631,358 disclose devices which dispense stored keys to an externally accessible location when a hotel guest “checks in.” Key dispensers are typically gravity driven systems wherein the key is gravity fed to a customer though a chute. These systems may further include a slot or compartment whereby a key may be deposited. The deposited key, however, is not identified by the system upon deposition. Thus, once a key is returned, an employee must access the system to remove and sort the keys that have been returned.
An automated access control system which provides automated storing of an item such as a key and later access to the stored item is needed.